Next Stage of Evolution
by Mizar
Summary: This is just a what if? John/Cameron quickie romance, mature-rated. I don't own these characters or the series and the mention of a movie is purely to facilitate the fiction. Besides, I think Riley and John are a huge mismatch. :


The Next Stage:

"Two days travel, for nothing. A goose chase," thought John disgustedly as the four of them drove home. Cameron at the wheel, Derek in back dozing, Sarah beside Derek lost in deep thought as usual.

They'd had a tip that a scientist named Levant, working in Mickey-Mouse university computer science department in Nevada had part-way developed a quantum-based computer capable of basic, randomized thought. Little did they know that the scientist had been hurriedly scrambling for new grant money because his current grant was running out. He'd "embellished" the progress he'd made, didn't even have the basic mechanism of data processing nailed down, but then neither did anyone else on Earth when it came to quantum computing in this time-frame.

John didn't really fault the guy, he imagined vying for grant money was a very competitive business.

Plus, there was one less human's life to destroy, one less computer to worry about. Ironically, despite Skynet, John still liked powerful computers. They did what you asked, until they became "self-aware" that is. If only it were possible to keep advancing, but avoid creating Skynet. Truth be told, he wasn't sure it was possible to avoid ending up with a Skynet of some kind at some point because unfortunately, it seemed like that was the logical and catastrophic evolutionary path of increasing computing power.

According to Derek, the first machines launched by Skynet had been crude, just semi-intelligent battle craft, and Skynet itself had accomplished what it had through sheer bulk of conventional computing power. Skynet had effected a mass amalgamation of computer control and power, Earth-wide and that is where its power had originated from. It made him mad thinking about it. There were hints of what could happen when anomalous occurrences started appearing in data in earlier massively-linked computer efforts, like SETI in the 1980s and 1990s.

John remembered Hollywood made a movie in the late 1960's speculating about such a situation. It was called "The Forbin Project." He'd seen it on TV in one of the myriad, unmemorable hotel rooms he and Sarah had stayed in, marveled at how closely it mirrored what Skynet would do.

Except Skynet was worse. It would not only take control of the planet, it would attempt to wipe humanity out, something the Forbin machine, named "Colossus," didn't want to do. Colossus took total control, but it wanted to "help" mankind because it considered man too violent and self-misguided for its own good. It went about taking control, in a very dictatorial and draconian manner. But it didn't kill three billion people doing it, just turned them into mice in an experiment.

"Nice meandering thoughts, John, way to obsess about the rest of your days," he considered as the semi-desert scenery raced by. Raced was a exaggeration. More like drifted quickly. Cameron had been instructed by Sarah to keep to no more than 10mph above any highway speed limit unless the situation demanded otherwise. Getting pulled over for speeding by the police is how _stupid_ criminals get caught after robberies and not something they needed to happen, in-fact.."John, get off this pointless thought train" he chided himself. Boy, Derek would love it, John thinking about Skynet, Judgment Day, police problems and the rest. He'd say that John was finally thinking like John Connor, not "John Baum."

John looked over at Cameron. He did this whenever he found himself brooding. It lightened his mood. Since he first saw her at school, he knew there was something "off" about her. But then John was slightly "off" himself. "Like attracts like" and he'd been intrigued by her despite his mother's unspoken admonition to stay aloof. Wouldn't being normal attract less attention? If time travelers were amongst us now, wouldn't it be better if they acted like Joe Average rather than Joe Nutcase?

Flash backward a month. Cameron, her chip damaged and wanting to terminate John is pinned between two trucks, plaintively expressing her love for him, begging him that she didn't want to go. He still wasn't sure what her true state of mind was at that point, whether the impact of the two trucks had jogged her back to normalcy , or if it was a ploy to get him to release her so she could finish terminating him. His mother had said they don't feel, they have no soul. That was the peculiar thing about the concept of the soul. It was linked directly to the idea of a God, which had less evidential substance to its concept than a _tangible_ cybernetic organism with a complex mind capable of reasoning. So why should he invest any value in her having a soul or not?

What he did know was that he would not have been able to live with himself had he let her be incinerated by the thermite. John had never really experienced true loss, not permanent anyway and her loss would be devastating to him. He'd risked his own life to determine if she was back in the fold. He'd disobeyed his ever-watchful mother, machine-hating Derek and his own sense of duty. Oh yeah, and put the fate of the World in jeopardy.

He looked at Cameron again. He did it because what she said was true, he was in-love with her. Completely and absolutely.

Early on, he'd tried to deny it, tried rationalize that it was beyond convention, tried to cold-shoulder her, to make a go at a relationship, however tenuous, with Riley. But more and more of his thoughts were being consumed by her and it was getting harder to just sit and "take it" and he wasn't the type to just take it forever.

He thought back to when she'd come to his room, sans jacket, and then just lay beside him on the bed in an attempt to distract him from Riley. He'd followed though with his plan, to go "on vacation" with Riley and look at what resulted from that. He put on a brave face with Riley, but all he could really think about was Cameron.

He once took apart a computer hard disk. Inside he'd found two neodymium permanent magnets that had such a strong magnetic attraction they just about crushed his finger when they suddenly tried to snap together, opposite pole to pole. Cameron and he, a case of two magnets, mutual attraction of unlike parts, or was it just him? He wanted to know if there was any reciprocation here.

Laying next to her, he barely had enough fortitude to keep his thoughts to himself. He felt his body heat up and knew she was aware of it. He'd resolved to do something.

"Dear Cameron, here's how I feel, I spared your life after you tried to _kill_ me. Please consider it."

Snapping out of his reverie, he look at her again. She looked beautiful in the low sun. But then she always looked beautiful, even "damaged." She looked at him, smiled and winked. He smiled back at her. "Please don't do that," he thought, "It just kills me!" She was still experimenting with human mannerisms and spoken dialog.

He rested his head against the window and closed his eyes.

John was jolted awake roughly, feeling his body whip-sawed back and forth. He grabbed for the door handle to steady himself as Cameron whipped the wheel back to true, preventing the large, black 4x4 from going out of control. Derek and Sarah snapped out of their slumber, clanging into one another. The truck evened out it's course, going back to cruising.

"What the Hell....!?" Derek yelled.

"An animal ran across the truck's path" Cameron said evenly. "I maneuvered to avoided hitting it." "It could have done severe damage to the vehicle, possibly causing it to crash."

"What kind of animal..??" Derek said, still shaken and annoyed at being wakened.

"I believe it is called a deer."

"A deer, in the desert??"

"Yes, it appeared to be a deer."

"John, get this one a rudimentary book on animal species when you get back would you?" Derek said, in a histrionic tone.

"Odd," John though. He's usually more dead-pan.

They arrived home, Derek and Sarah ate something before going to bed. John said goodnight to them, and went into the kitchen. Cameron was standing as usual, staring out the window. She seemed to be blinking and her eyes were red.

"Are you alright?" John said concernedly. "You look kinda weak."

"I'm good, everything is fine, normal." She paused. "Thank you for asking John." Cameron said in a monotone.

John continued to look at her.

"I'm heading up, you wanna come talk a bit?" John asked.

Her eyes widened a bit. "Yes, I will." John had not asked her to go to his room before. She'd always just invited herself, for whatever reason there was at the time.

They walked upstairs together and went into John's room. John had a bathroom adjacent his, he wanted his mother to take it, but she said she'd rather have him have another room with another door in it, just in case. One more barrier between John and any danger.

"Mind if I just brush my teeth and change first?"

"No."

"I'll be a couple minutes."

She smiled inwardly. His throaty voice was...pleasing to her. She remembered having a similar reaction to performing ballet. She actually practiced some post-mission.

She now had the same reaction to John's voice, she wanted to hear more of it.

Cameron watched as John stripped off his shirt. He wasn't as muscular as Derek, he was still young, but he had a very well-proportioned upper body, very symmetrical. He shut the bathroom door, then she heard water running.

She thought about his body some more, her mind allowing her to play back him taking of his shirt.

Then she noticed something happening. Galvanic Skin Response elevated flashed in her H.U.D. Display. She felt here forehead and she was sweating!

Normally, she didn't sweat, only under intense physical exertion because her main muscles were synthetic fibers, the "human" musculature was confined to the under-surface of her skin.

What was going on? She actually felt hot! She also felt weak, something she never felt except under extreme circumstances. Should she tell John?

"Is my chip experiencing a fault, am I about try to kill him again?"

No, she would know if that were happening, she checked her program directives all the time since the "accident" to make sure she was not going to be redirected to that end. She'd been trying to figure out if there were any tell-tale signs that could alert her in-case she ever reverted again. That way, she might be able to self-immolate to save John.

But she was sweating and didn't want John to see it (why not?). So she stripped down to her

underwear in an attempt to cool down. She removed the elastic cinching her hair at the back and shook it out to its soft fullness. She was standing there, looking at herself in a full length mirror, looking for any other physical clues as to what the problem was, when he came out of the washroom.

His jawed dropped open slightly, his eyes went wide and he just took it in. He'd seen her fully naked when they time-jumped. He'd seen her in her underwear one morning before his mother quietly broached the subject of human modesty to her and why she'd rather see her in clothes. But this was different. A single bedside lamp's light washed over her. The shadows accentuated her perfect body, throwing every ultra-feminine curve into soft relief.

He had a rush of feelings that left him weak, like the endorphins were having a field day in his brain. He thought about what was before him, what the possibilities were, and what the massive pitfalls could be. His breath caught in his throat and he managed a weak "Cam-"

"That's it," He thought. "I can't take this any more."

She was preoccupied with checking her body out in the mirror, but when she saw him come out of the bathroom, she just stood still.

"I-I was just checking for any damage..." She trailed off.

She could see his eyes were enveloping her, as if the room had disappeared and she was all there was.

Then she realized, she had to tell him. She _had_ been back to normal when the trucks pinned her, that she was totally coherent and desperately pleading with him not to let her go, that she _was_ (deeply) in-love with him. It hadn't been a terminator's ploy. The thought of leaving him basically sent her over the edge.

She still couldn't understand how it happened because there could be no love, no emotion. It wasn't possible. But there was emotion, so much that it overwhelmed any resistance she might have left concerning the potential consequences that might arise from this. She was still his protector and she would not relinquish this, but there had to be more for her now.

"John, I'm in love with you and I think you love me" "Do you love me John?" She stood looking concerned and expectant.

John's head swam, he couldn't believe this. "Yes, I love you, I love you Cameron, I've loved you since we met and I want you!"

She laughed, then he brought her into his arms, reveling in the feel as his arms touched her skin, his bare chest pressing against her. He kissed her passionately, she kissed back, pent up desire unleashed in both of them. His was natural, hers unexplained but incredibly exciting to both of them..

He looked into her expressive, large eyes for her permission to go further and she gave it.

They kissed again, more fervently, he was as inexperienced as she was, so he acted on instinct, looking for cues as she was responding and kissing his way down her body. He loved it, the feel and smell of her skin, the contours of her supple and undeniably strong body. She watched him, running her fingers through his hair and across his shoulders.

She gasped, she could feel sensation, but this wasn't like anything else she'd felt.

She allowed him to remove her bra and lay her on the bed. He pulled off her panties, kissing her down to where they'd been, lingering there until she experienced something she'd never felt, that rippled in waves over her, her vision swam, the force of it blasted her mind and wiped all thoughts from her except that she now understood what it was to be happy.

She reciprocated his actions, then with her help he entered her and they moved together until he and she both had mind-shattering climaxes, their cries muffled by each other's hands, for obvious reasons. For four hours they made love, in the last moments watching each other, and holding onto each other because they realized what it was to belong wholly to someone else.

As they lay there, looking at each other, stroking each other, he quipped:

"Looks like it'll be another late morning for me." She laughed softly and tilted her head into his chest. He buried his face in her hair, letting it envelope him.

"I don't want you to get up, I want you to stay here with me John. I want to stay with you."

"You will, you are and I won't leave you. When I think of what could have happened when the truck blew up...." He looked at her.

"I said I can't trust you anymore. I'm sorry, but please promise me you won't risk your life on my account again." Cameron stated seriously.

"I'll can't make that promise, I won't!" John looked intently at her, somewhat alarmed.

She looked at him, broke a smile and giggled and said: "Good!"

"Arrrrrg" He nuzzled into her neck. She gave an "ahhh," kissed his neck and felt the desire welling up again, so they made love for a fifth and final time that night. John drifted off, Cameron softly intoning, "I love you John Connor" and kissing his forehead.

John awoke slowly, weak, but satisfied and happy. He wanted her again. She wasn't just strong fighting terminators, he though, and smiled. But he was also thinking about how to break this to his mom and Derek, there would be no way to hide it.

Then he sat bolt upright. Cameron was next to him. She was laying on her side with her eyes closed. His heart jumped into his mouth, Cameron didn't sleep, something is wrong with her chip! Had he caused this?!

He jumped out of the bed, knocking over an nightstand, and said, "Cam, Cam, CAM!!" She didn't stir.

Sarah and Derek, hearing John yell, ran up from downstairs and burst into the room, guns drawn, ready for a fight. Sarah did a double-take. Derek looked incredulous. There was John, nude, desperately trying to raise Cameron.

"What the-" Said Derek, "What's going on wi-!" "Oh boyyyy!" Didn't take much to figure out so he just stood there gawking.

"John, please don't tell me you did what I know you must have!" She glared at him.

"Mom, forget it, it happened, she's, there's something wrong, she doesn't sleep!" Panic rising in his voice.

"Mom, please, I don't know what's happening!"

Sarah, looked anxious and flabbergasted at the same time. But she loved John and his state of mind was more important than him having used Cameron as some kind of sex toy.

"John, maybe her chip-"

"NO! I'm not going to cut her head open again!!" "Please mom, call Charlie, it's got to be something related to here human...half." "Please mom!"

"I-I call him, I don't know-"

"Don't bother." Stated Derek. He was looking at the ground with a sense of resignation.

"What? Why?" Asked John, confused.

"Because there's nothing wrong. She's asleep. She's been "humanized."

"What? What does that mean?"

"It means, Sarah and John, that the techs developed a program. We were losing too many men. For every terminator we ran into, five or six men would die before they took out the terminator. We needed an edge. So John ordered that we capture terminators and re-programmed to work for us."

"Like Cameron?" Asked John, still confused.

"No, not like her. The plan worked but we were still losing too many men. So John tasked the techs to go further. They developed a new neural network for the captured units. One that doesn't just learn, it learns to be more human. Not like how the terminator merely aped some human behaviour. Their "brain" begins to learn like a human, develop neural pathways like a human. But once that happened, they developed all the traits of a human mind.

The only people that were in the loop on this were the tech and command groups. The net result was that the kill ratio went from 6:1 to 3:1, a big saving for us. You were right John, Derek said with a sigh, she is different. He looked at Cameron's sleeping figure.

John thought about this. "If she's only asleep, why won't she wake up?!"

"That one has to sleep like this the first few days. Like a coma. Some kind of physiological response to never having had to sleep before. She'll also be very hungry when she wakes up. But they don't eat as much as you and me."

Sarah stood looking astonished.

"Will you PLEASE stop referring to her as _that one_. Her name is Cameron!"

"Fair enough."

"John, I don't care what happened, I don't want you to-" Sarah started to say.

"-be in love with a machine? Because I DO love her, mom." John was adamant, he could be that way often. Sign of a leader.

Sarah looked both sad and exasperated. This would take some time for her to get used to. But she could see John was set.

"Like I said, the first few days, when she sleeps, you won't be able to wake her. You'll be vulnerable without her. He looked directly at John to make sure he understood. After that, she'll be sleeping normally, like you or me, but she'll only need about three hours sleep a day and less food than us. Something to do with having less human body composition than the rest of us. From that standpoint, she'll be less effective as a watcher but more effective as an overall protector, which is what we found with the other "converts." We don't know why they work better than regular terminators. Maybe it's like turning into a faithful guard dog with feelings, rather than just being a soulless cyborg protector?"

Derek gave a wan smile.

John glared at him.

"Sarah, I'm hungry." Derek said. He motioned with a head tilt for them to leave the room.

Sarah just looked concerned and walked out of the room. But not before saying to John, "Put some pants on." He'd hugged a sheet around himself.

Seven hours later, Cameron woke up. John smiled at her, vastly relieved she appeared to be okay.

"How are you feeling?"

"W-what happened? I was unconscious? John I had thoughts about you, silly mixed-up images."

"I think you were dreaming, you've been asleep." She looked confused, slightly agitated. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, you're fine, better than fine. I'll explain what's happening to you."

He got up and brought a large tray over to her. On it was a wide assortment of breakfast foods. Eggs, fruit, cereal, pancakes. "I didn't know what you'd be hungry for.."

"I'm hungry?" She tipped her head inquisitively. "I am hungry...Why am I hungry, John?"

She ate tentatively and John spent the next fifteen minutes telling Cameron what Derek had told him.

"So how does this make you feel?" John asked somewhat nervously.

"Happy, John." She paused, "I feel very happy." She smiled.

"I know things are different now John, but my mission is still to protect you."

"I wouldn't want it any other way. By the way, would you mind then getting me some of those cheese things? The crunchy kind, not the puffy ones."

He grinned.

"I'm your protector, not your servant." She said, dryly.

He smiled, leaned in and kissed her deeply. She whispered into his ear again that she loved him.

They separated and he said:

"By the way, Derek told me something last week. Today is your _build day_."

She reflected on this for a second. "Can we call it my birthday?"

"Absolutely." They kissed again.

"I got you something, a present." He handed her a small box.

She opened it. Inside was a silver-coloured necklace, with a triangular medallion with a blue stone in the centre. Her visual spectrograph showed platinum and blue corundum, sapphire.

It's what we call your "birth stone." Each month is represented by a different stone, your stone is sapphire.

He put it around her neck. She choked up. It was beautiful. "Thank you John."

"Your welcome and you look beautiful" He said, pleased she liked it.

She thought for a moment.

"But I never got you anything for your birthday! I'm sorry. What kind of present would you like?"

He grinned evilly. She grinned back, grabbed the material of his shirt and hauled him on to the bed.

-End.


End file.
